ABSTRACT
An important feature of health care is the significant role played by one professional group, doctors, which claims to have the scientific knowledge and expertise in health and diseases. The labelling of the doctor as a healer and a professional seems to identify him or her as being committed to patients’ interest in particular, and the community at large. Under the penetrative influence of the clinical perspective of medicine, the medical profession is oriented to applying and reinforcing curative and high-tech approaches to health care characterising the delivery of health care in developed capitalist societies. The functionalists are optimistic and confident about the intrinsic value of medicine in performing the vital health function for the society as a whole. The trait approach argues that the medical profession’s command of medical science and knowledge acquired through academic training and clinical experience engenders a ‘competence gap’ between the medical profession and the public.
